Lake Fork mid summer pattern

I fish afternoon & nights almost exclusively from the end of May until the end of August. July is a good month for BIG fish. I believe there are three different night feeding patterns in the summer. In the early summer pattern (June), the fish are recovering from the stress of the spawn and feeding extremely well in shallow water. In the mid summer pattern (July), the thermocline is obvious and the fish tend to go deeper. Then when they get on their late summer pattern (August - September), they really relate to the grass.
In the late evening, I do well on the mid lake humps and points on Carolina rigs, spoons, tail spinners, and crankbaits. After dark, we catch most of our big fish on plastic worms and craws. I catch most of my night fish from about 10 to 20 feet of water in July. I will anchor my boat on a good spot and wait for the fish to move in. If they aren't already there feeding when I arrive, they will usually move in eventually. I have had nights where I would sit in the same spot for an hour without much action and then catch 8 or 10 good fish in a couple of hours. There times, however, that the fish don't move around much. On those nights, I cover lots of water. It doen't usually take more than a 1/2 hour to find out if they are moving around. If I hit a spot and get bit right away, but nothing happens for the next half hour, I will try another spot. Sometimes that is the pattern. Go to a spot and only give it 15 or 20 minutes and try another spot. I don't like those kind of nights, but moving around can make a 20+ fish night out of what would normally be a slow night.
By the end of July, the fish get on a good schooling pattern in the late afternoons. I catch most of my schooling bass on rattle traps and topwater baits on offshore structures. We often get a limit of small fish before it gets dark. Then, after dark, we catch our quality fish.